T’is the season to thank clients
As Christmas draws nigh so does the time to reflect on how much you value your clients.

Showing appreciation in some small gesture can pay massive dividends in the ongoing customer loyalty bank.

It should present as a genuine effort to acknowledge clients that contributed to your bottom line during the past year. And make yourself memorable in the process.

Depending on the size of your client database, you may consider hand writing the card otherwise try personalising it in some manner by a quick comment or at the very least a handwritten signature.

Avoid including any promotional or marketing material in the thank you card as it will smack of a cynical marketing exercise lacking in sincerity.

At other times during the year, you may consider writing thank you letters to express gratitude for closing a new deal, loyal custom or for any referral they may have sent your way. It also pays to acknowledge people for any mentoring or guidance they may have provided or even for the opportunity to present a business proposal to them despite never securing a deal or contract.

The rules governing correct protocols for business email writing continually change in line with expectations and exasperation in the contemporary workplace.

Much of the advice focuses on what to say (and what NOT to say) when composing the email itself but little graft is given to the etiquette about when to send the email and who to send it to and all the iffy scenarios in between.

Again, little mishaps or errors of judgement on your part can play a major role in whether the recipient reacts negatively or responds positively to your email communication.

CC, BCC and Reply All rules
Avoid typing all addresses in “To” field
Use CC if appropriate to share addresses
Make clear who needs to respond/ take action
Use BCC to maintain client confidentiality
Consider using MailMerge instead
Limit Reply All unless all need to see response

Avoid being too precious about your original thoughts. Be prepared to write multiple drafts until you get it right. Make no mistake that it can be difficult to write simply and therefore takes a lot of practise.

Mastering the written word boils down to a few simple rules, which can be spelt out as follows:

Grammar, punctuation and spelling.

Understanding the fundamental rules of writing is the key to producing a professional product.

Learning to write is no different than any other skill. You must break it down into its purest form, examine all the parts that make up the sentence, determine how and why they work together as they do…before putting them all back together again.

My dream is to rid the world of the misplaced apostrophe, put punctuation in its place and give spelling the royal treatment (the UK rather than US variety).

My passion is to take the mystery out of writing and make it accessible to people eager to discover the joys of mastering the art of writing.

My mission is teach those who feel left out, left behind or simply left bewildered by the complexities of the English language.

There is unfortunately a lot of stigma around illiteracy so many are embarrassed to admit that they need help writing. If you’ve ever read or seen the movie The Reader you can see how far some people are prepared to go to hide their shame.